Travis Bagwell
Author of Catharsis
About the Author
Series
Works by Travis Bagwell
A War of One 2 copies
Armageddon (Awaken Online, #6) 2 copies
Timeless: Awaken Online 2 copies
Hollow (Madness Re-Incarnate Book 1) 2 copies
Katharsis (Awaken Online #1) 1 copy
Timeless (Awaken Online, #7) 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Bagwell, Travis
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- attorney
- Short biography
- I live in Austin, Texas with my wife and our three dogs. I’m an attorney by day and an avid video game enthusiast by night. Writing fiction has been a secret dream of mine for a while. However, between school and work, that dream seemed impossible to squeeze in. I have a bit more time on my hands nowadays and I decided to finally put my nerdy interests to work.
I’ve been in love with the growing “LitRPG” genre for a few years and have devoured nearly every book and story that has been published in this genre so far. I cut my teeth on Ready Player One and Caverns and Creatures. I’ve also branched into anime/manga. Sword Art Online and Log Horizon are probably my favorites. After running out of reading material, I decided to finally try my hand at writing and publishing my own story. - Map Location
- Austin, Texas
Members
Reviews
Awaken Online: Apathy is a Side Quest (novella) in the Awaken Online series by Travis Bagwell. This an origin story for Eliza, a character we meet in book 3.
Eliza's parents have decided she is going to medical school and have loaded her schedule to the brim with studying. Needing an escape Eliza jumps at the chance to try out the latest hit game, Awaken Online. Not long after logging in Eliza runs into the most irritating god around and his pet sheep. Suddenly Eliza finds herself chosen as show more the Hippie's "avatar" and sent on the most asinine series of quests imaginable.
This book was so much fun! Eliza is quite likeable and easy to sympathize with. I love how the game pushes these characters to become better versions of themselves. It was great to see Eliza grow in confidence as her character progresses through a series of seemingly unrelated and bizarre quests. Speaking of the quests, AO has some of the best in game prompts I've ever read, they're hilarious. I really wish I could play this game.
All hail Fluffy! show less
Eliza's parents have decided she is going to medical school and have loaded her schedule to the brim with studying. Needing an escape Eliza jumps at the chance to try out the latest hit game, Awaken Online. Not long after logging in Eliza runs into the most irritating god around and his pet sheep. Suddenly Eliza finds herself chosen as show more the Hippie's "avatar" and sent on the most asinine series of quests imaginable.
This book was so much fun! Eliza is quite likeable and easy to sympathize with. I love how the game pushes these characters to become better versions of themselves. It was great to see Eliza grow in confidence as her character progresses through a series of seemingly unrelated and bizarre quests. Speaking of the quests, AO has some of the best in game prompts I've ever read, they're hilarious. I really wish I could play this game.
All hail Fluffy! show less
A few days have passed since Jason last logged into the game. Alfred, the game's AI, had approached him with a request he's not sure he should go along with. He's also been appointed Regent of the Twilight Throne and must take on all of the responsibilities that go with it. Not quite sure if he's ready or not, Jason logs back in to AO. Ruling a city of undead comes with an interesting challenge: How to preserve and grow the population when the city's people cannot procreate and do not show more respawn when they die? Meanwhile, Alex has not handled losing the battle for Lux very well. His desire to take revenge is so strong that it gains the attention of one of the game's gods, the Lady of Light. Can the Lady set Alex on a path to power and retribution?
Awaken Online: Precipice is the second in the Awaken Online series by Travis Bagwell. No middle book syndrome here! Bagwell starts layering the story lines and does a great job of managing them all. Jason's in game story as evil overlord is progressing nicely. He has started to focus on gathering allies and comes up with creative solutions to answer his city's logistical problems. Jason also continues to grow his necromantic power, though the quest for this is rather vague. To that end two of Jason's real world friends join up to help out. It was great to have Frank and Riley added to the story. Each goes on a small arc of their own to grow both in game and out. Riley is still grappling with how to trust again after Alex's betrayal while Frank is determined to become more useful as a player. What fascinates me is how the game impacts all three characters in order to make them better people in the real world.
In contrast, we are also treated to some of Alex's backstory. The game's AI taps into Alex's memories, showing how his mother set him on the path to being a high-functioning sociopath. Instead of helping make Alex a better person, the game seems to enhance these sociopathic tendencies. It's also an interesting comparison how the game has put the generally good person Jason and friends in the villain's role while the real life monster is a representative for the Light, which is traditionally considered the "good" faction in most MMOs.
A new story thread is also introduced with the game's makers Virillian Entertainment. In some real world politics they have decided to hire Game Masters to help police the game. While a good idea in theory, things go sideways rather quickly as the Game Masters all go on a power trip and abuse their in game good skills in the name of helping out. While I could see the temptation it's also a little silly as if this actually happened those employees would have been fired immediately.
Seeing as the story is set in an online game world there is plenty of action to go around. Jason's solutions to encounters are always highly creative in how he uses the game mechanics. I almost wish a game like this existed so I could play it, though I imagine it would be a nightmare to code.
I listened to the audio book which narrated again by David Stifel. He gives the same performance as he does for book one creating a seamless transition between books.
And then we get to the end where we're given one hell of a cliff hanger. Write faster Mr. Bagwell! I need to know how Jason gets out of this latest situation. show less
Awaken Online: Precipice is the second in the Awaken Online series by Travis Bagwell. No middle book syndrome here! Bagwell starts layering the story lines and does a great job of managing them all. Jason's in game story as evil overlord is progressing nicely. He has started to focus on gathering allies and comes up with creative solutions to answer his city's logistical problems. Jason also continues to grow his necromantic power, though the quest for this is rather vague. To that end two of Jason's real world friends join up to help out. It was great to have Frank and Riley added to the story. Each goes on a small arc of their own to grow both in game and out. Riley is still grappling with how to trust again after Alex's betrayal while Frank is determined to become more useful as a player. What fascinates me is how the game impacts all three characters in order to make them better people in the real world.
In contrast, we are also treated to some of Alex's backstory. The game's AI taps into Alex's memories, showing how his mother set him on the path to being a high-functioning sociopath. Instead of helping make Alex a better person, the game seems to enhance these sociopathic tendencies. It's also an interesting comparison how the game has put the generally good person Jason and friends in the villain's role while the real life monster is a representative for the Light, which is traditionally considered the "good" faction in most MMOs.
A new story thread is also introduced with the game's makers Virillian Entertainment. In some real world politics they have decided to hire Game Masters to help police the game. While a good idea in theory, things go sideways rather quickly as the Game Masters all go on a power trip and abuse their in game good skills in the name of helping out. While I could see the temptation it's also a little silly as if this actually happened those employees would have been fired immediately.
Seeing as the story is set in an online game world there is plenty of action to go around. Jason's solutions to encounters are always highly creative in how he uses the game mechanics. I almost wish a game like this existed so I could play it, though I imagine it would be a nightmare to code.
I listened to the audio book which narrated again by David Stifel. He gives the same performance as he does for book one creating a seamless transition between books.
And then we get to the end where we're given one hell of a cliff hanger. Write faster Mr. Bagwell! I need to know how Jason gets out of this latest situation. show less
I admit I was a bit irritated when I first learned that the author was taking a break from Jason's story to write a short spin off series for Awaken Online. Seeing that Awaken Online is my current LitRPG series of choice it was only a matter of time before I downloaded Ember, the first in the Awaken Online: Tarot series. How does it compare? It is both familiar and different in an intriguing way.
The story revolves around Finn Harris, a retired software programming genius who survived a show more horrific accident that left him in a wheelchair. Finn's wife died in that accident and he blames himself as he was the one who created the software that failed, causing the autonomous car they were riding in to crash. Locking himself away from the world, Finn's daughter intervenes, forcing him out of his grief and into a new virtual reality game called Awaken Online. She believes something unusual is going on in the game world and wants Finn's help to figure out what is is. Finn has no idea what to expect from the game but it certainly wasn't to be dropped into a school for mages where the students are pitted against each other in Battle Royale-style duels to keep from being expelled. What is going on here?
Fans of Awaken Online should enjoy this new branch to the series. Ember is Finn's origin story and introduction to the game world. It reminded me a lot of Catharsis in that Finn goes through a highly customized introduction where the game's AI picks up on Finn's emotional state and memories to help define what class his character will be. Also like the main series the game appears to be trying to help Finn work through his emotional issues and be a better person, though its methods feel questionable at times. The similarities end there as Finn is immediately dropped into a magic school that feels a lot more like a prison. Finn makes a friend along the way, who I hope gets some more page time in the future. Kyle is a great strategist and pays a high attention to detail. Finn's daughter, Julia, also plays a role in game. All three of them have highly complementary skills that could take them far. I also have to mention that Bagwell's sense of humor carries through to the quest updates which are snarky and hilarious.
I liked that the story focused mostly on the game world, providing a lot of depth to the magic system, and and helping Finn deal with his grief. Unlike the main series, there isn't much of a real world story thread. I could see that changing if Finn manages to work out what the AI is doing. Which brings me to the one thing I didn't like.Finn creates an AI assistant within the game world. That has a high probability of being unbalancing in the future.
I listened to the audio book narrated by David Stifel. He continues to do a good job.
While Finn's story is a 3 book arc, I'm already wondering how his inevitable meeting with Jason will go once the two stories merge in the main series. At least that's where I assume this is heading. Only time will tell. show less
The story revolves around Finn Harris, a retired software programming genius who survived a show more horrific accident that left him in a wheelchair. Finn's wife died in that accident and he blames himself as he was the one who created the software that failed, causing the autonomous car they were riding in to crash. Locking himself away from the world, Finn's daughter intervenes, forcing him out of his grief and into a new virtual reality game called Awaken Online. She believes something unusual is going on in the game world and wants Finn's help to figure out what is is. Finn has no idea what to expect from the game but it certainly wasn't to be dropped into a school for mages where the students are pitted against each other in Battle Royale-style duels to keep from being expelled. What is going on here?
Fans of Awaken Online should enjoy this new branch to the series. Ember is Finn's origin story and introduction to the game world. It reminded me a lot of Catharsis in that Finn goes through a highly customized introduction where the game's AI picks up on Finn's emotional state and memories to help define what class his character will be. Also like the main series the game appears to be trying to help Finn work through his emotional issues and be a better person, though its methods feel questionable at times. The similarities end there as Finn is immediately dropped into a magic school that feels a lot more like a prison. Finn makes a friend along the way, who I hope gets some more page time in the future. Kyle is a great strategist and pays a high attention to detail. Finn's daughter, Julia, also plays a role in game. All three of them have highly complementary skills that could take them far. I also have to mention that Bagwell's sense of humor carries through to the quest updates which are snarky and hilarious.
I liked that the story focused mostly on the game world, providing a lot of depth to the magic system, and and helping Finn deal with his grief. Unlike the main series, there isn't much of a real world story thread. I could see that changing if Finn manages to work out what the AI is doing. Which brings me to the one thing I didn't like.
I listened to the audio book narrated by David Stifel. He continues to do a good job.
While Finn's story is a 3 book arc, I'm already wondering how his inevitable meeting with Jason will go once the two stories merge in the main series. At least that's where I assume this is heading. Only time will tell. show less
Wait ... I reached the end?! Noooooo!!! That cliffhanger.
With that out of the way, let's get back to the actual book.
This book covers the growth of Jason from being an angry teen to an evil overlord. What I enjoyed is we started getting a much better glimpse of Riley and Frank, Jason's friends, that we barely saw in the first book. And they are epic!!
I really enjoyed this book and the quests that it covers. It had twists and turns that had me excited to keep going. I enjoy the characters show more and reading through their thoughts. The Awaken Online universe itself, as a game, is very exciting to me as a gamer and a gamedev.
I highly recommend this series and am excited to keep reading. On to Book 2.5! show less
With that out of the way, let's get back to the actual book.
This book covers the growth of Jason from being an angry teen to an evil overlord. What I enjoyed is we started getting a much better glimpse of Riley and Frank, Jason's friends, that we barely saw in the first book. And they are epic!!
I really enjoyed this book and the quests that it covers. It had twists and turns that had me excited to keep going. I enjoy the characters show more and reading through their thoughts. The Awaken Online universe itself, as a game, is very exciting to me as a gamer and a gamedev.
I highly recommend this series and am excited to keep reading. On to Book 2.5! show less
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